Alex Awards

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18. The winning titles are selected from the previous year's publishing. The Alex Awards were first given annually beginning in 1998 and became an official ALA award in 2002. The award is administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and sponsored by the Margaret A. Edwards Trust. Edwards pioneered young adult library services and worked for many years at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore. Her work is described in her book Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts, and over the years she has served as an inspiration to many librarians who serve young adults. The Alex Awards are named after Edwards, who was called “Alex” by her friends.

Mildred L. Batchelder Award

This award honors Mildred L. Batchelder, a former executive director of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC, a division of ALA), a believer in the importance of good books for children in translation from all parts of the world. Batchelder spent 30 years with ALA, working as an ambassador to the world on behalf of children and books, encouraging and promoting the translation of the world's best children's literature. Her life's work was "to eliminate barriers to understanding between people of different cultures, races, nations, and languages." This award, established in her honor in 1966, is a citation awarded to an American publisher for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States. ALSC gives the award to encourage American publishers to seek out superior children's books abroad and to promote communication among the peoples of the world.

Booklist Top of the List/Editors' Choice

Booklist magazine is the review journal of the American Library Association--which recently launched its own standalone web site at http://www.booklistonline.com. Every January, Booklist publishes an Editors' Choice issue, which spotlights lists compiled by the editors of the best books, databases, video/DVDs, and audiobooks of the past year. From those lists, Booklist further selects the Top of the List, the single best title in eight categories--adult fiction, adult nonfiction, youth fiction, youth nonfiction, youth picture book, reference source, video/DVD, and audiobook.

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video

The Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video, supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, was awarded for the first time in 1991 to honor outstanding video productions for children released during the previous year. The annual award is given to the video's producer by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of ALA, through a Carnegie endowment.

Margaret A. Edwards Award

The Margaret A. Edwards Award, named for an administrator of young adult programs at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD, for more than 30 years, who brought young adult literature and library services to the attention of the library profession--she spent her professional life bringing books and young adults together, pioneering outreach services for teenagers and establishing a stringent training program designed especially for librarians beginning their work with adolescents--is awarded annually to an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, that have been popular over a period of time; it recognizes an author's work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world. The award is administered by ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA, a division of ALA) but is actually sponsored by School Library Journal magazine.

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, named for the world-renowned children's author better known as Dr. Seuss, is awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished contribution to the body of American children's literature known as beginning reader books published in the United States during the preceding year; the award is to recognize the author(s) and illustrator(s) of a beginning reader book who demonstrate great creativity and imagination in his/her/their literary and artistic achievements to engage children in reading.

Created in 1969, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards for Authors and Illustrators is designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood. Awarded annually to African American authors and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream. The Coretta Scott King Book Award is presented by the Coretta Scott King Book Award Committee of ALA's Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT). The Coretta Scott King New Talent Award was first awarded in 1995, and then officially renamed the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award in 1999; these books affirm new talent and offer visibility to excellence in writing or illustration at the beginning of a career as a published book creator. The most current winner and honor books of all of the the Coretta Scott King Book Awards can be found on at http://www.ala.org/csk.

Acceptance speeches for the awards have been available irregularly; contact ALA's Office for Literacy and Outreach Services at olos@ala.org to ask about availability of specific years. Reading levels/grade levels for Coretta Scott King Book Award books appear in reviews of the books; see Sources of Reviews for further assistance in finding these.

William C. Morris Award

The William C. Morris Award, first awarded in 2009, honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature. The award's namesake is William C. Morris, an influential innovator in the publishing world and an advocate for marketing books for children and young adults. Bill Morris left an impressive mark on the field of children’s and young adult literature. He was beloved in the publishing field and the library profession for his generosity and marvelous enthusiasm for promoting literature for children and teens.

Children's Notable Lists

Each year at the ALA Midwinter Meeting, ALA's Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC, a division of ALA) identifies the best of the best in children's books, recordings, videos, and computer software. The titles on the various ALSC Children's Notable Lists are selected from those media presented for publication in the preceding year, which prove worthy of note or notice, and are important, distinguished and outstanding; they are thought to be of especially commendable quality that exhibit venturesome creativity and reflect and encourage children's intelligence and imagination in exemplary ways. The media are for children of age levels birth through 14-years-old.

Notable Book seal for the Association for Library Service to Children -- Although named the Notable Book Seal, the seal may be placed on any of the titles on the various ALSC Children's Notable Lists: Notable Children’s Books, Notable Children’s Recordings, Notable Children’s Videos and Great Interactive Software for Kids (formerly Notable Children’s Computer Software).

Notable Books for Adults

Since 1944, the goal of the Notable Books Council has been to make available to the nation's readers a list of 25 very good, very readable, and at times very important fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books for the adult reader. The Notable Books List evolved from an activity sponsored by the Lending Round Table of the American Library Association (ALA) beginning in 1944.

Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production

The first Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production was announced at the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting Youth Media Awards Press Conference. This annual award is given to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States. The selection committee may also select honor titles. The Odyssey Award is jointly given and administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), divisions of ALA, and is sponsored by Booklist magazine.

Schneider Family Book Award

The Schneider Family Book Award, donated by Dr. Katherine Schneider, is awarded annually to an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. Three annual awards each consisting of $5000 and a framed plaque, will be given annually in each of the following categories: birth through grade school (age 0–10), middle school (age 11–13) and teens (age 13–18); (age groupings are approximations). The book must emphasize the artistic expression of the disability experience for children and or adolescent audiences. The book must portray some aspect of living with a disability or that of a friend or family member, whether the disability is physical, mental or emotional.

Stonewall Book Award

The first and most enduring award for GLBT books is the Stonewall Book Awards, sponsored by the American Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table. Since Isabel Miller's Patience and Sarah received the first award in 1971, many other books have been honored for exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered experience. Originally a grassroots acknowledgment honoring hallmark works in GLBT publishing, the Gay Book Award (as it was originally known) became an official American Library Association award in 1986. The next year, its name was changed to the Gay and Lesbian Book Award. Beginning in 1990, the Book Award expanded into two categories: nonfiction and literature. In 1994, the name changed once more to the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Book Award. In 1999, when the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Task Force became the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table, the name changed yet again to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Book Award. In 2002, the name changed to the Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the Stonewall Book Award-Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal

Administered by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal was first given to its namesake in 1954. The bronze medal honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children. Winners are announced at the ALA Midwinter Meeting and receive the medal at the Annual Conference in June. Between 1960 and 1980, the Wilder Award was given every five years. From 1980 to 2001, it was awarded every three years. Beginning in 2001, it has been awarded every two years.